City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call to order the city council meeting of 05/12/2026. Before we call the roll, just for those of you who've seen the plume of smoke in the air, that is unfortunately the what appears to be the Temple Theater. We have incomplete information, but based on the most recent information from the fire department, there has been no loss of life to our knowledge, and the fire has been contained to the upstairs floors and no surrounding building. More news as it comes out. The city is going to put out to the community, but we just wanted to make sure that we acknowledge the hard work of our first responders.

Our heart goes out to any of the affected folks, and we'll continue updating the community as we learn more. But just wanted to be as responsive as possible. So with that, clerk, please call the roll.

Deputy Mayor Bushnell?

Present.

Councilmember Diaz?

Here.

Councilmember Hines? Here. Councilmember Palmer? Here. Councilmember Rumba? Here. Councilmember Sidalgo?

Here.

Councilmember Scott? Here. Councilmember Walker? Here. Mayor Ibsen?

Here. Please join me in listening to the land acknowledgment and flag salute led by Councilmember Rumbaugh, followed by a moment of silence.

We gratefully honor and acknowledge that we rest on the traditional lands of the Peel people, where they make their home and speak the Lushootseed language. Please stand for this flag salute and remain standing for a moment of silence.

Are there any modifications to the agenda this evening?

I move to remove item five, Jewish Heritage Month proclamation from the agenda and reschedule it to next week.

Second.

Move and seconded. Are there any council questions or comments? Seeing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion is declared adopted. Are there any additional modifications to the agenda this evening?

I move to adopt the consent agenda, including Resolutions Number forty one thousand nine hundred six and forty one thousand nine hundred seven.

Second. Movement seconded. Any questions, comments, or corrections? Seeing none. Those in favor of adopting the consent agenda, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Consent agenda is declared adopted. We have two ceremonials tonight, moving on to our first, which is proclaiming May 2026 as Historic Preservation Month. For Historic Preservation Month, I'd like to invite Mr.

Ruben McKnight and Kevin Bartoy, Chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. And Ruben, who is the Planning and Development Services Historic Preservation Officer, to the podium as I read the proclamation. Whereas Tacoma is a treasure trove of historic resources, including 194 city landmarks and nine historic districts listed on either the city of Tacoma, Washington State, or National Register of Historic Places, and whereas historic preservation is an essential component of maintaining civic identity and celebrating our history of attracting investment through the rehabilitation of historic buildings and of our efforts to be a sustainable city through fostering a culture of reuse, waste reduction, and local sourcing, And whereas we celebrate the role of history in our lives and the contributions made by dedicated individuals to help preserve the tangible aspects of the heritage that has shaped the city of Tacoma and us as a people. And whereas historic preservation encourages community reinvestment, saving resources, and promoting socially, culturally, and economically rich communities through innovative and adaptive reuse of historic buildings, which continues to revitalize the heart of the city and its neighborhoods. And whereas this year's theme, celebrating community heritage, highlights our efforts to recognize the power of place and preserving the diverse historical narratives throughout the city.

Now, therefore, I, Anders Ibsen, mayor of the city of Tacoma, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as historic preservation month in the city of Tacoma and encourage our residents to join us in this special observance. Please say a few words. BERNANKE:

Nope. Is that on? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And this is my daughter Louise, who came to join me this evening as well. She's a grand grizzly councilmember Walker. Yeah, I'm really proud to represent the Landmarks Preservation Commission here. It's going to be my last year on the Landmarks Preservation as I'm rolling off it, but we do a lot of great work, as many of you know. We had a few highlights from 2025 that we wanted to share with you.

Did almost 30 different historic design reviews as a commission. There were a lot, four new landmark nominations that came forward to the Tacoma Register of Historic Places. One of the ones that I think we're all most proud of is we approved almost $13,000,000 in tax incentive projects. So it really shows that historic preservation is an economic engine for the city. We worked in 2025 with the Planning Commission to adopt new rules related to historic preservation and cultural resources policies, aligning the commission with important areas of city policies such as housing and equity.

Through that process, we also introduced a new Community Heritage Register, which I think is going to be able to recognize a lot more of those places that Tacoma's find important that maybe don't rise to the level of what we have on our Tacoma Register in terms of their architectural significance or their integrity or those types of things. This month is historic preservation month and celebrating community heritage is what our theme is. And so I'd like to invite you all down to the Fort Nisqually, May 21, 05:30 to 07:30. It's a free public event. It's our annual historic preservation awards, which is always a marvelous event we have down there. So you'll see many great stories about people preserving the history of Tacoma but then also get

to learn a little bit

more about the fort and all the renovations they're doing down there. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Ruben any words?

Thank you Mr. Mayor and counsel I would like to thank counsel for his continued support and guidance in our policy directions for historic preservation and hope we see you next week thank you.

Thank you both for your service. Councilmember hines and followed by councilmember rumbaugh

have

some comments as well.

Well, first of all, I do have to ask what grade your student is in a grant, Mr. Bartowy.

Do you want to answer?

Second grade.

Second Okay. Well, I know Councilor Walker has a fifth grader at Grant, but I have a third grader at Grant. So always great to see Grant kids here. I just want to say thank you for your work on Landmarks Preservation Commission. And Ruud, thank you for your work with Historic Preservation. You know, I taught for a long time at Federal Way. And my students used to ask Mr. Heinz like would you ever live in Federal Way? I said no. And then I said why? I said well I want to live in a state with a soul. And you know I'm just exposing where I'm at here. And you know, not just strip mall central. And that's one of the things I've always really loved about Tacoma, right? Is the historic built infrastructure we have here, right?

So when you come to Tacoma, you have a city that's over a 125 years old, 150 years old now, I guess. And has the architecture and the buildings and the historical kind of legacy that gives us a lot of the character we have. So I know that's definitely the work of the Landmarks Preservation Commission and also the work of your office, Ruben, along with people for many, many years ahead of us who stepped in when things like Union Station were on the chopping block when all the things that the UW Tacoma were going to go away and really have stepped in and really done a lot of good things to make sure we hold on to the soul of Tacoma in a way that maybe the city in the North hasn't. Thank you.

CHAIRMAN Shots fired. Councilmember Rumbaugh.

RUMBAH Thank you. And I just want to say I really appreciate all the work that happens on the landmarks commission. But I also want to thank our staff, Ruben. I really appreciate you and all the work that you do. But I mean, as the council member that sort of represents where all of these districts are located in District 2, which makes me proud, I just really want to call out the work that's happened over the time to create like the wedge to keep the hospital from encroaching on the neighborhood, the North Slope District, and then the areas downtown, and just the really great work that we've done to keep our city interesting, not a cliche, something that you come and, I mean, you hear all the time about how people love the neighborhoods here, is because we appreciate our history.

So I just want to thank you so much for this opportunity to recognize what we do here in Tacoma and how we are a special city. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other counsel comments? Well, with that, thank you once again for bringing this forward. Please, step forward to accept the proclamation, and let's please, give these folks a round of applause.

Two three. Alright.

For our second proclamation, we have the proclamation of May 2026 as hunger awareness month. For hunger awareness month, I'd like to invite Leanna Olds, deputy director of the emergency food network, to the podium as I read the proclamation. Whereas the number of adults, children, seniors, active military, and veterans in Pierce County seeking food assistance has risen by 169% since 2019, underscoring the growing hunger crisis in our community. And whereas it is important to address the food insecurity that Tacoma's children endure, as the well-being of our children is an investment in our community's future health, educational performance, and economic vitality. And whereas local food pantries served an average of 308,000 visits per month in 2025 from people struggling with unemployment, underemployment, and other physical and economic challenges.

And whereas emergency food network aims to distribute 20,000,000 pounds of food this year to its more than 75 partner food pantries, meal sites, and shelters, and whereas rising food and fuel costs affect Tacoma residents and the local emergency food system, and have already resulted in increased visits to the emergency food system. Now, therefore, I, Anders Ibsen, mayor of the City Of Tacoma, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as hunger awareness month in the city Of Tacoma and encourage all residents to support this observance and to recognize emergency food network and its allies for their outstanding service, leadership, and commitment to providing food for residents in the City Of Tacoma and Pierce County. Please say a few words.

Thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor I'm Sin. Thank you to the council for your continued support for the work that we're doing at emergency food network and honestly to all of our food pantry partners in Tacoma. Really I've lived in Pierce County my entire life and it's one thing I'm incredibly proud of is that I really do feel like I live in a county where our government is invested in the success of the people who live here. I was today just at a coalition meeting for human services and one of my brilliant colleagues said, didn't you guys change your name?

Emergency Food Network doesn't seem to fit you since hunger is such a part of everyone's life nowadays. And what I told them was, actually, I constantly feel like we are in a state of emergency. And more recently, I feel like that emergency is getting much worse and when we submitted for this proclamation we were only a 193% above at the height of covet and now we're at 213 every single month we are seeing between a 1014% increase in the number of client visits across the county of people waiting in line to get food. Meanwhile, we're also seeing a plummet of donations of food, and I understand why. Because food is much more expensive to get, and food is much more expensive to keep.

And we are doing our best to deal with what feels like a wave of need, but we're projecting 4,000,000 client visits this year. And we are not set up as a county, as a community, to deal with 4,000,000 people visiting the food pantry not once, not twice, but at this point average around eight times in order to make sure that they have food in the cupboards to support their families. Everybody thinks about food during Christmas time and the holidays, and we see this great big surge. But the truth is that with the end of school meal programs, summer is where we're going see the greatest need. And we're already seeing massive increases.

So that's why we do hunger awareness month in May, to spur the community to do food drives, to do food and fun drives, to learn more and talk more about the reality of hunger. One in four people in Washington will visit a food pantry this year. Like, that we know. And yet, we still have a massive stigma that creates barriers for people to actually go and do something which is absolutely essential and which is probably being done by their neighbors, their coworkers, and other family members that they know. So if we can get more people to access we have maps on our website for them to find a food pantry in your area, it's in multiple language, they can find something that's open no matter what time, that there is no reason for them to be ashamed when the reality is the shame is that poverty that we're become okay with in our society and that we've been okay with so many people being hungry.

So we encourage everyone this month, please, if you want to learn more, out to us. We'd love to talk to your ear off, to give you a tour, to invite you to engage, because we are seeing a collapse of federal support in the food system. The only way we are going to be able to support our community is as a community. EFN has a goal of raising 20,000,000 pounds of food this year, which won't solve the problem, but it is going to help us curtail the wave. At this point, mitigation is essential. So be part of it. Help us reach 20,000,000 pounds of food because there is a place for everybody in this work. Thank you so much.

Thank you Director Olds. So we have a comment from Councilmember Barumba.

I want to thank you so much for coming today. I heard you speak at your fundraiser and your story was very moving. And I think a lot of us have that story of growing up and understanding what it means to be hungry. I also just wanted to promote the Sun Bucks program. It's a way to fill they have money for families to make up the difference for lunches that they don't have for the summer. I also know they're giving out lunches through Parks Tacoma, is doing that. But also, I know the main branch is going to have food from Parks Tacoma as well. And I, you know, really working on trying to get food where kids are. And so, I just want to thank you so much for what you do. It really does make a difference, and we all here on this council care about this issue. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Are there other comments from the council? Thank you so much for all the work that you do. Please come forward to accept the proclamation, and let's give a round of applause. Okay.

Moving on to public comment. On tonight's agenda, there are two opportunities for people to comment. Under public comment, you can speak about motions, resolutions, and ordinances on tonight's agenda. Under community forum, which is held at the end of this meeting, you can speak about items over which the city council has jurisdiction. These forums are intended to give speakers the opportunity to share their viewpoints and feedback with the city council and to aid in our decision making, and this is not meant to be a back and forth dialogue. Your remarks should be directed to the city council as a whole and not at individual staff members or members of the council. And if you're online, you can just, either hit the raise hand button, or star nine now so we can see the number of people online wishing to testify. With that, clerk, please read.

This is the time set aside for public comments. Speakers are asked to identify the specific legislation they wish to address.

Okay. Please keep your comments respectful, relevant, focused on topic. We have two people who have signed in, in person. We have Jessica Johnston, followed by Jeffrey Sargent.

Hello, city council. Hello, mayor. Thank you everyone for having us here, city manager and all city staff. I'm here to speak on the resolution that council member Scott has brought to us for the Hilltop. And I just want to thank council member Scott so much for her attention and her dedication to our neighborhood.

We are both members there, and we love it so much. It is our home. We are also both very aware that this is the footprint of the welcoming area of Tacoma. And so to be able to have this pass is very meaningful to us and to the community. I feel not only would this help Hilltop, but also the Downtown Tacoma area.

We have seen a lot of really tragic things happen on Hilltop within the last two weeks. I have seen stabbings. I have seen a death at the encampments that no one's really talking about. I've seen drug deals. I have been up all night being conflicted by people screaming at their neighbors and I feel like I'm back in New York again and just it it's a little crazy.

It's a little bit of a war town on Hilltop. But we are very strong, and we're very supportive, and we really appreciate what council is bringing to the city to be able to help our safety issues. So again, I would like to thank councilmember Scott for bringing this up. I do want to recommend we do this all over Tacoma. Thank you.

Thank you, Jessica. Our next speaker is Jeffrey Sargent.

Hi, Jeffrey Sargent here. Thank you for the opportunity, counsel, to be here. I'm actually first time coming to a city council meeting, so it's interesting to see how the wheels are working, and I'm thankful for Jessica to bring me down today. I'd like to also echo what Jessica had to say about Resolution 41,910. And first of all, Councilmember Scott for bringing this forward.

I've been living in Hilltop for the past seven years, just about a block off of MLK And 11th. Been here through the construction of the Hilltop housing and seen a lot of things happen. And just the safety and security of the neighborhood is something that we really need to focus on. And the same thing she was saying with all the violence. I've seen numerous tent fires and all kinds of incidents.

I've personally been a victim of a lot of different crimes around my home. And just, it's something that I think we really need to focus on. Like Jessica also said, with, you know, we put the light rail in there, and it goes right into the hilltop in the center. And we're trying to bring people into that part of the city and to help people get around. So I think that as we look forward, we have to start acting now to be able to cultivate the growth that is going to continue to happen as we progress down the road. That's it. Thank you for the opportunity.

CHAIRMAN Thank you, and welcome. All right. With that, we have no further speakers signed in, and none online. So we're going to adjourn public comment and move on with the regular agenda. Our first item is communications, item 5A. This is an informational item only. I'm sorry? Oh, that was not okay. My mistake. I apologize. I ungavel, I suppose. And it's not my first council meeting, so apologies. We do have actually five attendees. The mayor's going to air, too. We have five people signed in.

We're going to start with Tyler Daniels. And Mr. Daniels, if you can please identify which topic you're speaking to tonight.

Yes, thank you. A little bit flustered by you not giving us that space. However, I'm speaking to the tax breaks that are being provided on the housing. The city continues to provide tax breaks for the developers that are already going to be developing, there is not enough investment in maintaining the infrastructure that exists. The item for the sidewalks on MLK is a prime example of that.

There is not enough emphasis on the people who are adding the impact to traffics to be doing that, and it ends up falling on the citizens and taxpayers to pay that money out and allow for these developments to be done in a way that is not sustainable. I repeat, it is not sustainable. The cycle of creation is to create, to maintain, and then to destroy. The city of Tacoma's pattern is to avoid responsibility in allocating resources to maintenance. Therefore, it falls to creation and destruction.

It's visible in our roadways. It's visible in our tree network that has uptaken a significant amount of our heavy metals, arsenic, lead, and cadmium, and it's showing in their sustainability that it's collapsing. The trees are brittle, they are diseased, and they are not going to sustain us without a significant investment. So I am encouraging you to divest from providing tax breaks to developers, and invest in creating for your community.

Thank you, Tyler. Heidi GS, followed by Lydia Zapeta. And Heidi, can you please identify which agenda item you're speaking to?

Good evening. My name is Heidi Stevens. I'm speaking to the Multifamily Tax and historic preservation month. I echo Tyler Daniel's comments as it relates to South Tacoma and the Tacoma Mall sub area. Regarding historic preservation months, the one area missing from the city register is one of the oldest and most intact historic store storefront stretches, which is along South Tacoma Way. There's a renewed interest among residents and business owners in preserving this landmark area, and we hope to have this council support through the upcoming process. Thank you.

Thank you, Heidi. Lydia Zapeta followed by Kathy Irwin. And, Lydia, which topic are you speaking to?

Hi. My name is Lydia Zapeta, and I'm from District 3. I am speaking to ordinance twenty nine one zero five, and I wanna thank council member Diaz and also council members, Rumbaugh and Saldege, for this ordinance. I fully support the ordinance, and this is something that the Commission on Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, CIRA, has been advocating for. This ordinance re restricts federal immigration enforcement from occurring on our city owned property to ensure that immigrants have safe spaces in our city.

It does not interfere in legitimate federal criminal arrest nor does it interfere with civil arrest where there is a judicial warrant. The ordinance is an example of how important local how important local government is to protect the rights of people in our community. Congress could have done this, but they chose not to. The state legislature had an opportunity to deal with this issue, but they chose not to. This leaves local government as the last line of defense to protect our rights. I just wanna thank you for stepping up and urge you to all vote for this. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Lydia. Kathy Irwin followed by Alma Villegas.

Hi, my name is Kathy Erwin, District 3. I am speaking on Resolution 41,908, mainly to ask questions as far as a timeline for at what point will they be going to tertiary treatment of the water with the North End Treatment Plant? And the other question I have is when will there be an upgrade to the South Sewage Treatment Plant or also known as the Central Wastewater Treatment Plant? Is there a timeline for that and if that can be addressed at some point in the future? Thank you.

Thank you, Kathy. Alma Villegas.

Good evening. I'm Alma Villegas. I live in District 2. I just wanted to call in my support for ordinance twenty nine one zero five, regarding the use of public property for ICE enforcement. And just to say thank you, thank you for listening.

Thank you, to council member Diaz and the sponsors for, for introducing this and seeing this through. I hope that everyone votes yes. And I know you said we're not supposed to single anybody out, but I particularly wanna thank you, mayor. I remember way before the election, having a conversation with you about how some of us felt. We questioned any sub kind of power shift and support from the previous mayor and this to me demonstrates that you are listening to our requests. And so I'm very appreciative of that and I just wanted to take a moment to see me. So

thank you.

And, and then one little add on, it would be wonderful if, if you all would be willing to present at a future date some sort of follow-up plans for how you're hoping to engage the school board so that they can, pass something similar to bar ICE from using school property for ICE enforcement. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Alma. And with that, that is all the people who signed in, so I'm going to correctly close public comment this time and move on with the rest of our agenda. Moving to communications, item 5A. This is just an informational item only. And then no action is necessary at the time with what was communicated. So moving on to item six, purchase resolutions. Clerk, please read.

Resolution 41,908, a resolution awarding a contract to McLaurin Sons, Inc. In the amount of $24,145,313 plus a 20% contingency budgeted from the wastewater fund for the construction of the North End treatment plan upgrade for projected contract total of $28,974,375.6 plus applicable taxes.

I move to adopt Resolution Number 41908.

Second.

Moved and seconded. Are there any counsel questions or comments? Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting Resolution Number 41908, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed to see nay. Resolution is declared adopted. Moving on to resolutions item number seven. This item will have a PowerPoint presentation. Clerk, please read.

Resolution 41909, a resolution authorizing the execution of a multifamily housing twelve year limited property tax exemption agreement with Shoebox Homes LLC for the development of eight multifamily market and regulated rate rental housing units located at 4327 South Puget Sound Avenue in the Tacoma Mall Regional Growth Center.

I move to adopt resolution number 41909. Second.

Move and second. I'd like to call on Mr. Paul Bacher. Thank you,

Mayor Ipsen. Good evening, City Council. I'm Paul Bacher with the Community and Economic Development Department. Tonight, I'll be presenting Resolution 41,909. For this project shoe box homes llc is proposing to develop eight new units including six market rate units and two affordable units and the project will also include four parking spaces.

Next slide please. Here's a breakdown of the units and the proposed rental rates. The project includes a total of four one bedroom units and four two bedroom units six market rate and two affordable as you can see. Next slide please the map shows the location of the proposed project in the Tacoma Mall regional growth center the project cost is estimated at $1,800,000 estimate it will create roughly eight thousand four hundred labor hours of employment. Next slide please.

In this table you can see the tax implications for the project total taxes to be generated for the city over the twelve years are estimated at $106,000 while total taxes to be exempted are estimated at $39,000 leaving a net positive impact of $67,000 and when the exemption is complete the full taxes will be assessed annually. That concludes my presentation I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you are there any questions?

I do not have a question, but I have a comment. I'm just letting folks know that I will be voting no on this resolution, mainly because I do not think that it is meeting the goal of what we want the MFTE exemption, if I can spit that out, to do. So yeah, just wanted to make that known. Thank

you. BRENNAN: Okay.

Any other council comments? All right. Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting a resolution number 41,909, please signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay.

Nay. All right.

The resolution is declared adopted. Moving on to item number eight. Clerk, please read.

Resolution 41,910 a resolution affirming the potential for high investment corridors to service drivers of economic growth and development and directing the city manager to prioritize cross departmental problem driven solutions using existing resources to address community safety concerns on high investment corridors.

I move to adopt resolution number 41,910. Second.

Moved and seconded. I'd like to call on councilmember

Thank you, mayor. I'm excited to bring this resolution forward tonight regarding community safety on our high investment corridors. This proposal is about making sure that we are protecting and capitalizing on all the costly public and private investments that are happening in Tacoma. We have seen robust investments in many parts of the city during the past ten years, including new roads, new buildings, new transit options, new apartments, new businesses, new public art, and much more. These investments are often clustered together along discrete corridors that generally span several blocks in our mixed use centers.

I call these locations high investment corridors. These types of high investment corridors are vital for Tacoma's economic growth because they can attract considerable community use. And by community use, I mean that they attract shoppers, renters, transit users, and other sources of revenue for our local businesses and general activation for the neighborhood. We have some high investment corridors that are thriving and are continuing to drive expanded development around them. However, we also have high investment corridors that are at risk of stagnation or even decline because safety concerns are limiting the community use of those corridors.

In this proposal, I'll list and note examples of high investment corridors, and I'm going to focus most of my remarks today on the MLK Corridor in Hilltop. The MLK Corridor, which runs from 9th To Ernest Brazil Street, should be well positioned for significant community use. It has large new apartment buildings, new transit access, new businesses, new art installations, and more. This corridor is also within walking distance of numerous office buildings and large medical facilities. It has ample parking and is located by a public park.

All of these features seem like they should be a recipe for success, but they are not. I have received calls from businesses on this corridor who are in crisis because they are spending too much money on safety measures and don't have enough customers. I see properties along this corridor sitting vacant for extended periods of time. I see apartment buildings struggling to fill up their units, and I see only a small number of people taking the incredible new public transit located in the heart of

this

corridor. I've spent a lot of time on this corridor trying to understand why all these fantastic new investments aren't attracting more people from across the city. To me, the answer is clear. When you look at this corridor through the lens of our Community Safety Action Strategy, you can see a long list of issues that make people feel unsafe, as we heard earlier from some of our folks here for public comment. On this MLK corridor, you can see issues like extensive graffiti and litter, overgrown landscaping, boarded up storefronts, and an underutilized parking lot that is dimly lit.

These are exactly the types of issues that our community told us makes them feel unsafe when we developed the Community Safety Action Strategy. Fortunately, most of these kinds of environmental issues don't require multimillion dollar investments to fix. What they do require is our focus and attention with our existing resources. Cross departmental problem driven solutions can help address community safety issues on all of our corridors. If we can take targeted and focused action on our corridors that are in need, we can create conditions that attract people from across the city to shop, eat, work, live, and have fun.

Without focused, problem driven intervention to enhance community safety, I worry that Tacoma will struggle to harness our high investment corridors as a tool as tools to drive economic growth and spread development. We cannot let the incredible investments in our city go to waste. It is vital that we ensure these corridors succeed. I'd like to thank Deputy Mayor Bushnell, Councilmember Hines and Councilmember Diaz for cosponsoring. And I also appreciate all the helpful feedback of the Economic Development Committee shared that they shared with me. I'd also like to say thank you to our community and Economic Development Department, especially Carol Wolf, for their helpful input. And I hope you will all join us in support of this proposal tonight, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may

Thank you, Councilmember Scott, and thank you so much for bringing this forward. We're going start with Councilmember Hines, followed by the Deputy Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you, Councilmember Scott, for bringing this forward. You know, as one of the cosponsors, the thing that most interested me about this conversation was the inclusion of the 6th Avenue District from Mildred Street to Jackson Street. That was an area, it's one of the neighborhoods that was identified for potential neighborhood planning funding as part the neighborhood planning process. It started with McKinley and Procter, and then concluded with South Tacoma Way last year. And then, as kind of the budget situation has become more challenging, we've kind of idled the neighborhood planning process. And so, I felt, you know, very eager to get something going for that part of the 6th Avenue area that's in the West End. There's currently a library there. There's other development happening in that area. The Tacoma Musical Playhouse is located in that vicinity. A fire station, War Memorial Park.

So, a

lot of assets are there. There's been multiple projects that have been proposed to come out of the ground to provide some more housing in that part of the area, along with kind of what's happening up further south in the James Center region. So again, similar to MLK, I think this is another good area where some coordinated investment and work with the city, the permitting department, the business owners, the neighbors, could really kind of be a way to be a catalyst for that neighborhood and really see it take off. I think one of the biggest values that we provide as a city, unlike some of the other cities that I mentioned earlier, we remain nameless, is that we have kind of these distinct neighborhoods that really make our city special. So whether you go to Procter or Hilltop or South Tacoma Way or McKinley, you're getting a different flavor of the city.

Know, you're still in Tacoma but it's a little bit different. There's a little bit different offerings and I think one of the biggest values in neighborhood planning process was the idea of looking at those neighborhoods and highlighting what's so great about them. So I'm very excited to support this and voting for this evening because I think it takes some of the best pieces of the neighborhood planning process in a more stripped down fashion to really kind of coordinate those investments those neighborhoods and continue to make sure more neighborhoods here in our city are the unique and special neighborhoods we know and love. Thank you Mr. Mayor.

Thank you councilmember hine.

You mayor. And I just want to appreciate councilmember Scott and leadership on this. And has been mentioned 6th Avenue, Mlk, South Tacoma, these are all places where the city has made investments and has taken the time to talk with residents. And it really, even with the sunsetting of the neighborhood planning, this really, I feel like, is like a almost like a successor to that. Like, how do we make sure that those planning efforts don't go in vain?

And making sure that folks in our community feel safe and are able to go and enjoy the different restaurants, enjoy the different businesses, enjoy walking their dog and or family up and down streets and making them feel safe. And so that's why I'm a big supporter of this, and making sure that our investments continue to support our neighborhoods. And I know there's some specific callouts, but this is not it's not an exhaustive list. So I just wanted to call out that this is something that we'll be taking into account investments made all across the city, in all the different high investment corridors. And so there are specific callouts in here, but it is very broad as well.

So that way we can make sure there's a coordinated citywide effort to enhance the safety of our high investment corridors. So thank you so much for your leadership, and I appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor. So with that, the resolution is before us. All those in favor of adopting resolution number forty one thousand nine ten, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed to say nay. Resolution is declared adopted. Thank you. Moving on to final reading of ordinances. Item nine, clerk please read.

Ordinance 29,105 an ordinance amending chapter 8.19 of the municipal code relating to use of public property to prohibit the use of municipal property for civil immigration enforcement and provide for civil remedies.

This item was presented last week. Are there any additional counsel questions or comments? Council Member Diaz.

Thank you, mayor. I wanted to reiterate a couple of the things I shared last week, particularly that this ordinance that is before us tonight is an enforcement mechanism for the resolution that we adopted in late December last year, resolution number 4,180 one-seven, that directed the city manager to clarify the use of city owned property for federal immigration enforcement operations in alignment with the Keep Washington Working Act and our city's extension of the Keep Washington Working Act in resolution 41,627. I particularly want to highlight that it' obviously now May and there' been a lot of time since we directed the city manager to do that work and now and I wanted to further explain that there' been a lot of city due diligence and trying to make sure that we have both the city resources, the proper legal language,

as

we're creating these new signage and the locations that will be put up most urgently. I believe they should go up within a week, ideally, of us passing this resolution or this ordinance should have passed tonight. The big important part of this ordinance is that this is now the enforcement mechanism. So having done this work in December, given staff the time to figure out all of the language, all of the locations, all of the enforcement mechanisms, really makes us the strongest ordinance that we could have. For clarification for folks, the list of places where we will be putting out the signs are here at the Tacoma Municipal Building, the Center for Urban Waters, and the Tacoma Dome.

We have a potential for up to 30 more sites that we will develop a budget process for and postage everywhere where the city has resources going forward. There will be a total of 13 signs, and four signs will require new signposts, we will get those going. That's why it's going to take not just immediately tomorrow, but within about a week here. I am really grateful for the work that the staff has done to make this strong as it can be for our city for our enforcement for protecting our city resources. Think for folks in the community there' a obviously the city code is an ordinance there' a lot of important legalese around what real property is and what kinds of property the city manages, and all of that is for legal and for folks doing the TMC to know and be able to enforce.

But I wanted to really make sure that I highlight that this is about city property, properties that are controlled by other governments, say parks, say schools, those are under not within the city's jurisdiction. So I would love for those entities to take up something like this to keep our other government entity properties in the use of those facilities because those are our same tax dollars and our same residents here paying for those services. We want make sure they're focused for those services and not for those of civil immigration enforcement, but that is up to those jurisdictions. With that said, I will look to the same manager to see if there's anything else he would like to cover on where the signage is going and anything I might have missed in my technical reading there.

Councilor Moradias, you have covered it quite extensively. I would like to doubly reiterate my just thanks to the staff. Locates will be complete by tomorrow, and so with the potential passage of this ordinance, I was just patting the city attorney on the back for the future work that will come from this standpoint. And so, signs will be located, and as you stated, we will develop budget options for counsel for deploying more signs across our portfolio of publicly city owned parcels going from here on out. Perfect. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Truly, the real heroes in this are the legal and the staff and the public works folks who have worked really diligently to make sure that we're crossing all the D's, dotting all the I's, and doing the work that we need to do to protect our resources because that is the goal here within our city. So unless folks have questions, I would hope that folks will vote on final passage. Thank you. CHAIRMAN CHAIRMAN BERNANKE.

Thank you, Mayor. And I wanted to take an opportunity to thank Councilmember Diaz for her leadership on this. We've been talking about this for, god, it sounds like way longer than a year now on trying to get it done. And the wheels of government go as fast as they go. But this is a good day within our power.

What we've been doing, at least since I've been on council, is to ensure that we're prioritizing impactful and substantive actions that actually have a meaningful effect on the communities that are affected, our immigrants and refugee community primarily. And all those that might be mistaken for immigrants and refugees because of the manner in which this federal administration has gone out and conducting the operations they've been conducting. But it takes intention. It takes diligence. Just because we have a federal government who, in my opinion, hasn't been very careful or respecting of laws or a pesky little document you might have heard called the Constitution.

We have been. And as much as we are limited in our authority, I learned something in all this is one of the authorities that is vested in local government, states, counties, cities, it actually derives from the tenth amendment. And actually, I would encourage people to read the actual ordinance because it goes into some of that. This is all to say that it's really important that if other people are still doing something wrong, you don't continue to do that and that you follow your values and pass laws that you believe are defensible. And I want to echo a point that you brought up, Councilmember Diaz.

This actually only covers city owned property for the staging use of federal civil immigration enforcement actions. It does not cover the county or state lands or, as you said, schools or parks or our neighboring jurisdictions areas. And I would like to see more of our neighbors, especially the county, even the state and whoever's in our area to, you know, I would call on them to consider and pass similar ordinances because this is something that's within each of our control. As small as it may seem, it is a powerful statement. Yet again I want to thank you councilmember Diaz.

I will be reaching out personally to those that I know in offering this but anyone else out there that would be willing to give voice I think that would be a really beneficial use their time and effort. Thank you.

CHAIRMAN you. And I just want to thank Councilmember Diaz for leading on this. I really appreciate you asking me to be on this, even though maybe it's just because I'm in District 2. But I want to say that these spaces are for community. And community, no matter who that is, should feel like they can be safe in our city, gathering on places that are Tacoma, City Of Tacoma property.

And I just want to say that there has been evidence from major cities across country or across this country that demonstrate immigrant enforcement activities disrupt and interfere with the use of municipal property. I don't think that we should have to worry about that in our city. I appreciate you for all the work you'92ve done and all of the, I want to say, what you'92ve had to put up with to get here. Thank you so much for doing this. I want to thank the other sponsors of this as well. Councilmember Zidalgo, I really appreciate you as well and all the work that you've done on these issues. It really does matter, and I see you both for all the work that you've done. Thank you.

Thank you. I, too, am very supportive of this. Thank you so much to your leadership, Councilmember Diaz, and to everyone involved. This is one of many steps that we're taking in protection of our residents and their civil liberties. So with that, we are going to have the vote in front of us. Clerk, please call the roll.

Deputy Mayor Bushnell.

Aye.

Councilmember Diaz. Aye. Councilmember Hines.

Aye.

Councilmember Palmer. Aye. Councilmember Rumba. Aye. Councilmember Sidalgo.

Aye.

Councilmember Scott. Aye. Councilmember Walker. Aye. Mayor Ibsen.

Aye. The ordinance is declared passed. Moving on, any unfinished business, is there unfinished business? You. Seeing no unfinished business, we're going go a bit out of order just to get a few housekeeping items out of the way before community forum. Are there we're going to start with a report from the Government Performance and Finance Committee. I'd like to call on Chair Hines.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The Government Performance and Finance Committee has convened twice since our last update. The April 21 meeting began with an overview of the Tacoma employees retirement system and how it provides lifetime retirement benefits to its members and retirees.

The second item was a review of the recommendations of volunteers to serve for the for and against committees that will prepare statements for the for and against proposition one connect Tacoma safe streets and sidewalks resolution. Finally we had an informational briefing on the city's 2024 accountability audit that was provided by the state auditor's office. The May 5 meeting was an inform informational briefing from the civil service board chair with an intent to transmit proposed personnel rules the city council of which was item five on the agenda earlier this evening. The next GPFC meeting is scheduled for May 19 at ten a. In Room 248 at the Tacoma Municipal Building.

The public is also invited to attend virtually. The agenda for this meeting includes two items, the Public Utility Board interviews, along with a small works roster and job ordering contracting presentation. Mayor, that concludes my report. Thank you, Chair Hynes. All right.

So with that, we are going to jump back into community forum. Clerk, please read.

The purpose of community forum is to assist the council in making policy decisions. Items of discussion will be limited to matters over which the council has jurisdiction. Arguments shall not be made in support of or opposition to any matter on this week's agenda, and each person may address the council only one time during this forum.

All right. Each speaker will have up to three minutes to make your remarks. Please be mindful of the time frame. As always, you are not required to use all of your time to make your point. If you cannot remain on topic, you'll be given two warnings. If you remain off topic, we'll have to move on, and we'll end your time. So with that, I'm going to start by calling in people who've signed in, starting with Karina Kellogg, followed by Des. Yes.

Good evening council members. I'm here to represent Geiger Montessori community and other parents that have their children enrolled in Tacoma Public Schools and specifically, Beyond the Bell or Club B programs. We have learned that Parks of Tacoma is considering to either significantly reduce or completely discontinue these programs. And even though I understand that it's, you know, they're in charge of that decision, I wanted to bring this to your attention, because this decision will drastically affect the entire Tacoma community. We are deeply concerned about this.

About 3,200 children, unique sign ups, are using these services. So, potentially, you know, between 2,600 to 3,000 families depend on these services. I myself have two children enrolled in the services five days a week. I depend on this to maintain my employment. If these services were to be discontinued, we would have to you know, all these families will have to face a choice of, you know, whether going part time, paying for childcare that is, you know, approximately $1,000 a month on top of the summer childcare that we have already arranged, you know, reduce their hours, go hybrid, or have to exit the workforce completely.

I've ran a simple, you know, I'm not a statistician, but I've ran projecting the losses, and it seems like for every dollar that the parks of Tacoma is planning on saving, it's about $1,700,000 residents will lose 20 times that much in income and city of Tacoma will lose probably dollar to dollar in tax revenues. We are here I'm you know, as representing the community, we're not here to we're here to support Ticone Parks. We would like to be part of the solution to this problem. We think that cutting the essential services is a death spiral that reduces the revenues. And we would love to be part of the solution.

Whatever parts of Tacoma needs, do they need for us to raise awareness about their services, advocate, you know, help them raise revenues, but we want to be part of the solution. We also would like to have higher transparency about this issue. The documents that are published online do not show the full picture. It is difficult to understand, you know, what are the cuts, what exactly the program costs are, what is driving those, you know, the budget deficit, etc. This is especially may I I forgot the

You can submit the rest of your comments in writing, and we'd be happy to read you that.

Okay. Thank you.

Of course.

Yeah. We're here to support, and VANILA Thank you.

VANILA your comments. Our next speaker is Des, followed by Christian.

Good evening, mayor and council. We are here tonight as members of the Pierce County Immigration Alliance to acknowledge an important step forward by condemning ICE activity and moving to codify resolution 41,627 including signage regarding ICE presence and guidance for employee non compliance. This council has begun responding to the demands raised by immigrant communities and organizers across Tacoma. But we want to be clear this did not happen on its own. In February council indicated there would be not be additional resolutions.

The reason we are here tonight is because community members organized, showed up repeatedly, and applied pressure. PCIA and immigrant families fought to make this possible. And while this resolution matters, we still need more. We need timely implementation. We need divestment from the GEO Group.

We need clarity on what role the Tacoma Police Department will play during ICE interactions. We need material support for immigrant committees communities and we continue to call for the closure of the Northwest ICE Processing Center. Local governments cannot continue pretending these issues belong only to the state or federal government. This council has the power to make real difference in people's lives, and tonight we ask you to keep going.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Christian, followed by Riley.

The epicenter of immigration terror in Tacoma continues to be the Northwest Detention Center, a facility that the council has claimed has great oversight, is stained with a long history of human rights abuses, and currently has more than 3,500 complaints from people detained on the inside about conditions in the facility. In some of the most recent reports university of Washington center for human rights stated that the northwest detention center had failed in following legal procedures for investigating claims of sexual abuse and assault. On top of that, it was also recently announced that the new seven month contract between ICE and GEO Group lowers the standards for treatment of detainees. This contract mandates that when it comes to sexual abuse that they should be default they should they should default to lower standards for investigation when there is a conflict between local and national standards. These kidnappings by ICE are happening to our own coworkers, our friends, our loved ones.

Our community lives in fear and will do so as long as we have ice in our city and a detention center in our backyard. But as they always have, the people are fighting back. People on the inside are going on a hunger strike to protest their conditions. People marched in the hundreds to the northwest detention center on May Day to fight for workers and immigrants' rights, and we are bringing more people into the fight for ICE against ICE. We have met with the Commission for Refugee Affairs, Unions, and Students, many of whom have endorsed our demands and resolution for ICE out of Tacoma. We will continue to organize and mobilize the people until all of our demands are met. Thank you.

Riley, followed by John.

We've seen the city council pass resolution 41,905 finally delivering a condemnation of ICE. We are glad that the city has listened to its constituents and reversed the response it delivered to members of PCIA in February that the council's previous statements on the matter of ICE with their January 13 statement was sufficient and they did not intend to release additional statements. We, too, condemn the unjust killing of Renee Goode, of Alex Preti, and the pattern of brutality displayed by ICE. We are also glad to see the passage tonight of ordinance 29,105, codifying the resolution regarding ICE activity passed sixteen months ago in February 2025 and further amended back in December, and beginning the process to place signage and create a plan against ICE activity in our public facilities. When we first came to City Council, as well as tonight, we heard you say that you want to do things that were material and not just words on a page.

We agree. In Resolution 41,905, the city calls itself a long standing opponent of for profit detention and says there's nothing that can be done by the city of Tacoma to impact the NWDC. But just last month, we were told it was too complicated to stop pocketing the change from the city's long term investments in the very same for profit detention company that runs the detention center. We ask you what we, your constituents, are supposed to believe is the Council's stance on this issue, when your agencies have invested their employees retirement funds, and thus their futures, in the continuing profitability of for profit detention, of immigration detention, and who knows what else.

Okay. Thank you, Riley. John, followed by Catelyn.

Yeah. And, we also want to ask the council, why you aren't raising the alarm about the GEO Group attempting to expand beds, beds under their newest contract with ICE. This is a flagrant violation of the city's own zoning laws. Even though in 2017, the city government stated that the zoning laws would have expressly prohibited any expansion of capacity or beds, and that those zoning laws that were put in place were already upheld by the courts. Was the city bluffing us then and claiming that they could stop GEOs expansion, or now, when they claim that there's nothing they can do to curtail the NWDC.

There's a lot that's involved in resolution 41,905. And if you look through, read it all like Councilmember Sidalgoy recommended, you'll see that the language repeatedly deflects the city of Tacoma's responsibility to act, and tries to establish that the burden lies with the state. And we ask you, counsel, why on earth would we believe that? When you're refusing to take even the actions we know to be within your power. They're your zoning laws.

Why would the people of this city trust that there's nothing you can do, when we have asked for four months what disciplinary measures a city employee who collaborates ICE will face? And we have not received an answer. This should be something in every employee handbook. What trust is there when it takes months of rallies, hundreds of commenters to extract an official condemnation of ICE's brutality? We continue to call for our core demands of our ICE Out of Tacoma resolution that have not been yet met by the council. And we'll continue to make our voices heard until they are met. Thank you.

Thank you, John. Catelyn, followed by Eugenia.

As previously stated, we know that the recent resolution and ordinance was passed because people took time out of their day to show up to counsel and call for ICE out. You know that our collective power is what drives change,

and the people know that it

is our collective power that drives change. And that is why you want to take away community forum. Community forum allows people to bring issues that matter to them, issues that you refuse to put on your agenda. Your proposal to get rid of community forum and bring it to individual districts is modeled after meetings that the council is already holding. We know that these meetings aren't well attended by the community, and trying to divide the people in this way so that we cannot see our collective power will not work.

Trying to divide people, taking away community forum because the constituents whose taxes pay your bill are mobilizing to tell you how you can serve them is unacceptable. And you don't have to make this mistake. You would still have the chance to maintain community forum and do right by the people. And if you think that getting rid of community forums will disappear us in our voices, you're wrong. We know that power, our power, people power only grows stronger in the face of repression. And I also want to say with my remaining time that the shifting between the three minutes to one point five minutes based on whether there's too many people is frankly disrespectful. We

spend a lot

of time preparing and mobilizing people to share their experience with city council. And you should not be shifting the time based on your arbitrary expectations of who is to how many sign ups are too many sign ups. You should be lowering barriers for people to come share their experience to you, not raising them.

Thank you, Caitlin. Eugenia, followed by Erica Daily.

Thank you. We appreciate the council's time and hope that we can maintain confidence both in an ongoing community forum and the city's condemnation of ICE activity. The inhumane treatment of the city's immigrant community needs to be a primary focus for the local government. We at Pierce County Immigration Alliance believe that the city has an opportunity to be a leader and be a strong example of defense for the cities across the country being targeted by ICE. Our organization and many who share a concern will not stop representing and fighting for our community until the following demands are met and faithfully maintained.

One, we demand that the Tacoma City Council make additional resources available that materially support its promise to be a welcoming city as declared in Tacoma resolution. Two, we demand that these ICE abductions be considered unlawful and that their unidentifiable masked officers be restricted from carrying out abductions within the city. Three, we demand a condemnation of the Northwest Detention Center and a promise from the Tacoma City Council that all opportunities to cease its operations in our city will be pursued. Four, we demand clarity on the city's policies around employees' collaboration with ICE and that these include firm and required disciplinary action. Five, we demand that the city be swift in its response to these crimes against their community.

Six, we demand divestment from GEO Group. Thank you for conducting this forum, and we look forward to this council's adherence to the protection of Tacoma immigrant families. Please look out in your inboxes for letters from the community from our recent event, Mothers Against Eyes, where we honored mothers in detention and mothers impacted by immigration terror, where the community shared what Eyes Out means to them. We will continue to mobilize the community to use the power of their voices, and we ask that you do your job and listen.

Okay. Thank you. Erica Daily. Is there an Erica Daily? Okay. Seeing none, we're moving on to our online speakers. Heidi Stevens followed by Teresa Evans.

Good evening. My name is Heidi Stevens. In today's study session, I was glad to hear one of the council members say he wants Tacoma to be leading in the area of environmental protection, but sadly, we're not in many ways. And specifically regarding critical recharge aquifers, one very important correction needs to be cross referencing the Washington administrative aquifer requirements into the South Tacoma Groundwater Protection District code. It's not enough to simply, although finally, admit that the South Tacoma groundwater is a sole source critical aquifer recharge area since we are still seeing current permits and the planning department continuing to completely skip the step of critical aquifer areas reports and reviews.

No wonder the port is wanting their code to be more like South Tacoma's because South Tacoma's code is still incomplete and allows for variations in areas which should have no exceptions. The planning department recently boasted to the planning commission about cross referencing housing codes to make those requirements more clear. Well, we're far past time to do the same for the South Tacoma groundwater code, to cross reference to the Washington administrative code requirements. If not, that says true environmental protection is not really your goal. Instead, it's trying to continue under the radar.

So please make this one small but very important change happen. And since we have three minutes, thank you, I want to support the nay vote on the Tacoma Mall sub area multifamily tax break. These developments are not bringing affordable housing and are worsening an area already suffering from open green space needed to combat poor air quality and heat zones. And some of these developments, we question if they actually even qualify for these tax breaks. Those need to be looked at much more closely and critically.

Also, had understood that the South Tacoma neighborhood plan was supposed to have been seen through, but especially if not, I request the same high investment corridor consideration be given to South Tacoma and South End as it is for Hilltop. And lastly, community forum needs to remain part of these public meetings so that comments rightly continue to be part of the public record. But mostly, please improve the South Dakota Groundwater Protection District code by no longer allowing the planning department and permit applicants to admit any connection to the Washington Administrative Code for the critical aquifer recharge areas. Thank you.

Thank you. Teresa Evans followed by Pamela.

Hello. I'm Teresa Evans. I'm in District 4 Sandoz Sadalgay's district, And I just want to speak really quickly about a couple things. One, I am grateful for the community forum happening tonight. And I the three minutes, I think that's great. Though I'm so used to speaking for less time, I would be pretty amazed if I actually talked for three minutes. But

the main things

I wanted to talk about were transportation, specifically biking and autos and and walking and other alternate transportation, sharing the same space. I just want it to be safe and usable for for all of us. And I know there's other people who talk about that, but it just it's on my mind. Specifically, I go on the pipeline trail quite often. So it's on my mind every time I travel.

And another part was, well, kind of a transportation thing because in our area on the East Side, my husband received in the mail, he showed me his mail. So at least this one, a note about the world the World Cup on June 12, an event happening in some possible road closures and whatnot. So I'm pretty excited about the World Cup and and and how it's being, promoted and supported and whatnot. So, it's

kind

of not a city council thing to to do. I guess it's some there's some form of permit that's going to be, applied for by by others, and you have departments to do that. But thank you for your support and for doing such cool things for our community. And have a wonderful evening. That's all.

Thank you. Pamela followed by Alma Viegas.

Hello. My name is Pamela Beck. I live in Ville Tenth, though my daughter attends school at Geiger Montessori. I only recently learned of the Parks Tacoma budget deficit, though as we always have done historically, the Tacoma community passed the requested levy for financial support. And while many pets are being proposed in our park services, I would really like the city council and the city in general to press their partner in keeping new services, especially the Beyond the Bell, Club B, and late night services intact.

Like many parents, I've experienced the 06:59AM adrenaline rush to start registering for Beyond the Bell at 7AM for all of those spaces to be filled by 07:01. The demand is there, the need is there, and perhaps not everyone is aware, but Mackenzie Scott has given over a million dollar grant for the Beyond the Bell programming, which will be lost if this program is dropped. I have incredible concern about the current rise in juvenile crime in our community, particularly the trend in violent crime. A quick search resulted in that statistic that the violent crime rates in Tacoma have doubled up through May from last year alone. And I have a feeling that unsupervised children, particularly those in the middle school age where they have nowhere to go and to engage in productive activities, is just a terrible recipe for that to get even worse.

When you look at the numbers, see that sixty three percent of Parks Tacoma's budget is tied up in salary and benefits, and most of that budget is tied up with those that make the decisions, that have the higher salaries. This budget is not tied up with those that provide these services. Most of those that work the Beyond the Bell, the Club B, and the late night programming make minimum wage and do it at part time. They don't receive the health care packaging. I would just like to say that if Parks Tacoma is unable to solve for these youth services, I hope that the city is preparing plans step up and to solve for this gap.

That the city would potentially take over this programming and be able to maintain at least the grants that we have in place. This is going to affect a lot of people. There quite simply are not enough childcare options already. Just the swiftness that occurred within just the preschool options when TPS, and I know this isn't a city concern, but it does affect families here. When TPS offered free preschool, a ton of private preschools went out of business.

And then the pendulum swung the other way, and now preschool's $1,400 and parents had no notice of that. And now private options that could have been more affordable aren't available. Parents are suffering. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Alma Villegas followed by Lydia Zepeda.

Good evening. Alma Villegas, District 2. As a follow-up to our ask that were submitted to you all on March 2026, one of the ask was has been addressed through ordinance twenty nine one zero five. There are two that are still remaining, and I would like to speak to those. Number one, to do a follow-up on producing a policy that clearly specifies how the Tacoma Police Department will respond to the presence and enforcement from federal immigration agents and or their contractors in the city of Tacoma, a policy that should be clear to officers and that is posted and enforced, and one that is also broadly communicated to the community with very intentional and targeted outreach to ensure that the community hears it and understands it.

We provided some examples, of this. I know that in some follow-up conversations, we've been informed that this is in the works. Some in terms of waiting for guidance from the state and others, and that you're reviewing some of the things that were recently passed by King County, sheriff's department. So we just wanna continue to, advocate for that, for ask for that, and that, this, hopefully will be dealt with, swiftly and soon, because we have been waiting in, but more importantly, the community has been waiting. And the second ask has to do with ensuring that there is a permanent, underscore, permanent line item in the budget in support of detainees that are housed at the Tacoma Detention Center.

We are asking for enough support for to cover the time for one year of attorney costs and additional funding for phone call support for detainees. We appreciate that.

There has

been funding that was allocated towards NURP recently and we are thankful for that, but that really isn't enough. We want to continue to advocate that before we fund our request. Thank you.

Thank you. Lydia followed by Norma.

Hi. Lydia Sepeda, District 3. Thank you very much for passing ordinance twenty nine one zero five. I wanna speak to two other items that affect immigrants. Alma has touched on, these as well.

The commission the first one is that the Commission on Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, CIRA, and community members have been asking for at least three years nonprofits to provide free legal services and phone calls to those detained in Northwest Ice Processing Center. We appreciate that you have been, you know, providing some funds, but they have not been a permanent part of the budget, and they are insufficient. There are there are at least a thousand people at the detention center and they all need, legal counseling and phone calls because immigration is a civil issue, so they don't get free right to phone call. They don't get free right to counsel. And so we're asking the city to please please, make a significant effort to put budget in the permanent as a permanent line item to allocate for legal counsel and phone phone calls.

The second item is that we really, really need clear language and outreach about, guidance both for police officers and community members about what to expect from the Tacoma Police Department when actual or supposed federal agents are harassing immigrants in our community. I've talked with officers, I've talked with community, and both are confused about what might happen or what is possible. And so both officers and community really need to understand what Tacoma Police Department can or cannot do, will or will not do, specifically whether they will ask for identification and warrants from alleged federal agents, and will they de escalate if they see violence. So I just want you to consider these issues and again thank you so much for passing ordinance 29.5. Have a good evening.

Thank you. Norma followed by Sterling Peel.

Hello. My name is Norma Ramirez, and I'm a District 1 resident. And I want to thank you all, especially Diaz for proposing and passing ordinance two nine one zero five, which will provide safe spaces for immigrants as as our other cities are doing and build trust in law enforcement here in Tacoma. I would I would like to see this ordinance amended to include the the use of to deny the use of city properties to federal contractors and bounty hunters conducting conducting immigration enforcement in the city. In addition, resolution four nine one zero five is a great step forward.

Thank you. It is urgent that Tacoma establish and clearly publicize its law enforcement policies regarding ICE immigration enforcement in our city to ensure everyone's safety. TPD officers should be trained to to see ICE agents' IDs, verify their identities, and ask to see their judicial warrants signed by a judge. TPD officers should also be required to turn on their body cameras when witnessing ICE actions actions and continue recording until the ICE agents leave. This is not interfering in ICE activities.

This ensures that arrests in Tacoma are carried out lawfully without violence or assault and with the correct documentation. The city must act on our behalf to ensure the safety of all immigrants in Tacoma. And I continue to request a dedicated budget line item of at least a $170,000 a year for attorney fees and detainee phone calls to support detainees. I think it's time that the city, share some of its the property tax property, the revenues from property tax that they are receiving from the the, the detention center. The the detention center is paying at least $780,000 a year for, in property taxes.

Nearly 1,300 detainees at the Northwest Northwest IPC have had their lives traumatically disrupted. Many could be released with legal services, but many cannot afford those legal services. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Norma. Sterling Peel filed by Keaton.

Hello. Yeah. This is Sterling. I really wish I could have made it in person today, but I can't, unfortunately. But thank you to everyone who did come in person, and I wish I could look you guys in the face while I said this, but this will work too. I don't have too much to say because I planned for ninety seconds, but I appreciate the three minutes. I'll just start by saying good evening, counsel. My name is Sterling Peel. I live in Council District 5, and I'd like to start by stating that I am in full support of the Pierce County Immigration Alliance and their ICE Out of Tacoma resolution. However, that's not what I'm here to speak on today.

I am here to speak on this proposed removal of community forum and public comment. The removal of public comment is a repression of your neighbors. It's a repression of the majority working class people of Tacoma who don't have the money to lobby you. Okay? This is an outlet for the people to express their frustrations in an attempt to feel heard even though it's been clear from the beginning that you are not listening.

If you remove the people's outlet to express their frustrations in this way, then the people are going to have to find other ways to make their voices heard. You know, I think I heard an old quote about that somewhere. I can't quite remember how it goes. Something about the language of the unheard? Have a good night.

Thank you very much for your comments. Next we have Keaton. And then followed by that, our final speaker will be Kathy Rainerwin. Hi.

This is Nick Byard calling, and I'm here with my son, Keaton. And we just found out that, Beyond the Bell is at risk, and we wanted to just call in and express support of anything the council can do to keep it going. We're gonna be at Parks meeting on Monday, but we wanted to the council would consider any support they can give on the bell. Keaton has been in Spanish and sports, and it's been a really enriching experience for him. It's, it's something that's enriching for all the kids to take part in it, and it's a necessity for a lot of parents, in our community.

So it's just a really important program, and we we hope that it continues. And Keaton wanted to just say a few words. Keaton is eight. He's, in second grade at Geiger Montessori, and he's in Spanish. So, Keaton, do you wanna say a few words about it?

Yes. Spanish is really fun. And we learn a lot of things there. And it means a lot to me.

So that's all we wanted to say. Thank you for your time.

MR. Yep. Thank you so much for your testimony. Our final speaker will be Kathy Erwin. Go ahead, Kathy. MS.

Hi. My name is Kathy Erwin. The reason why I wanted to speak tonight is I wanted to speak to the fact that South Tacoma, the South Tacoma industrial zoned area has not had a review or an update in a long time. And the only update that is planned is connected to the 2026 amendment to the comprehensive code and only addresses certain aspects of the industrial codes at this point. And I don't think that people understand or know that when it comes to detention centers, there is the possibility that a new detention center can be permitted in South Tacoma, that is on the books already.

Daycares can also be permitted in certain industrial areas of South Tacoma. All of this is exposing residents or people to an industrial type setting where there is already known pollutants. And so there are concerns that have not been addressed by the planning department and will not be addressed because it needs to come from the city council as a request to have that code updated for the industrial part of the zone that includes South Tacoma. The part of the industrial zone for the type flats was handled previously and they split off the South Tacoma section and are not doing a review of that, which is not fair to the residents that live there or to the rest of the city that this is not being addressed, what is able to be permitted in that area of South Tacoma. I've tried to ask the Planning Department about getting this changed and the Planning Commission and it truly has to come from the City Council that this get reviewed as to what gets permitted down there right now.

And so far, the planning department has not done any kind of comprehensive zoning updates to that area of the city. It's all been fragmented into the Tacoma Mall sub area. Everything's been a fragmented area of the city of South Tacoma, but not as a comprehensive plan update for the area. So this is back in the city council members' hands. If they want to see detention centers be a possibility down there, day cares, correctional facilities, youth facilities, live work environments, things that aren't necessarily to the best interest of somebody's health living in that area. And so I want to leave that with you to think about and consider moving forward. Thank you.

CHAIRMAN Thank you for your testimony tonight. We do have several other speakers in person. After that, two more speakers, and then we will close community forum. Thank you. I will call up Prithopal Diensta followed by Jenna. Please.

Yes, sir. City council members and the mayor my name is Prithpal Singh Dinsa and I own the business here in Tacoma. The address is 1302 Palt Avenue Tacoma Washington 98421. I bought this business three years ago and since that day I'm suffering for that business due to the homeless people and police not helping and right now city try to work the business lessons so we have the hearing also I don't know what is the decision by the judge or examiner but just I urge to the city right city is helping to the small scale business people or just the city try to shut down the businesses right and if any city council member they cannot try to nighttime so many homeless people is coming over there I respectfully tell to everybody but they don't want to listen sometime today also two times I clean the pee for them And they're throwing the bottles. Four time they broke the windows of the businesses.

We call to the police. I call the police several time. Police always busy. Sometime they show after two, three hours, people is gone. Or sometime people is there, police coming after half an hour, police people going to the left side alley. Police officer left, they come back again over there. So day before last week, they broke the window for my car. Previous week, they broke the window for my employees over there. So we urge to the city, they cannot do something for those people. They open the shelter close to the business.

Think that is the main problem. They always sit on the stones and sit on the edge of the roads and in front of the businesses. They try to bag something, but I don't know what they're doing. Right? So many people, they give the money. Some people, they make a pretend, oh, we are giving the food to them. I don't know what they are doing over there outside. But my question is that what the police is doing here? Just threatening, we are close to the business. So that's why I came here today.

And due to the bridge, you know, before that, we have nice customer. Bridge is closed, Pall Avenue Bridge. So after that, we are suffering. Maybe previous owner, he know that problem. In his time also, that bridge closed for eleven or twelve months. Due to that bridge closed, I lose $70,000 sale every month. But still I'm suffering I'm suffering and police officer, police department, city of Tacoma saying, oh you have the security. Security I already hired. But those they're not consistently they work with us promptly.

CHAIRMAN Thank you. And you're welcome to submit the rest of your comments in writing to the council too.

Thank you.

CHAIRMAN Yes. And sir, in the back, we have someone who can assist you by taking more information in the back corner there. Our final speaker tonight is Jenna.

I will make this short and sweet. I imagine that you are tired of hearing us speak out about ICE in the Northwest Distention Center. In fact, I know you are, as you're actively trying to shut down the public forum. First of all, if you shut this down, that will not stop our voices from being heard. It just becomes louder in other ways. And if you're tired of hearing about it, are exhausted living it. Countless of my neighbors have come up and told you the brutality of what ICE and the Northwest Detention Center are committing. Since that didn't call you to action, I don't know what will. But we will not stop. What we are doing right now is using the power we have to educate and call you to action.

But you all are elected officials. You have more power than we do. We are demanding you use every ounce of your power to stop this brutality. Step up and do your job. Put action into actually showing you you care about your constituents. If you are not up for the task and resigns, that we can elect someone else who can do it. I sought of Tacoma and shut down the Northwest Detention Center. Thank you.

Thank you, Jenna. With that, our community forum appears to be closed. Are no other speakers signed in. So with that, are there any final council comments? Councilmember Rumbaugh, filed by councilmember Palmer.

Thank you. I just wanted to ask the city manager about one of the comments that people had about the South Tacoma groundwater area and the zoning could you talk a little bit about what we have done and I can't understand based on where we are with that.

Thank you very much councilor mrumbaugh if you allow staff we can take a look at that question and get you a more comprehensive response.

That would be great and then I could share it with that person. Thank you.

Right councilor marembaud.

I just wanted to speak to beyond the bill. I know it's not under our jurisdiction, but I just wanted communities to know that it is a concern of, I'm guessing, many of your council members. I have two children who attend Beyond the Bell, and it's an amazing program. And I hear that there's concern, but I do believe that conversations are happening to see what we can do to save it or change it to where it makes sense for the city and still for the residents of the city. I just wanted to say that it is something that we are aware of and we support any kind of action that will help us preserve this program because it is important.

Thank you.

Thank you. Deputy Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to clarify. Someone had spoken on community forum and public comment. There is a difference. Just wanted to clarify that there's a difference between public comment and community forum.

Community forum is anything under which the city council has jurisdiction, which we just concluded tonight, and public comment is things that are on the agenda for that day. There is no proposed changes, as far as I'm aware, to change public comment. That is something that we do at the beginning of every meeting based on what's on the current agenda, and that there's no changes, as far as I'm aware, on that currently being proposed. So I just wanted to clarify that for folks that were mentioning that. And then separate from that, I just wanted to make sure that folks, if you're interested and have the time to come out to Larchmont Elementary School for a ribbon cutting, It is happening May 13, which is tomorrow, at ten a.

M. We worked really hard in partnership with our parks and Trust for Public Lands and Tacoma Public Schools. There was some federal funding cuts, And thanks to the work of this council and the city, we were able to help close the gap on some of that funding, even though the feds had cut that. And it really, really, I don't have anything prepared. It really brought together the opportunity for us to work together with our partners to make sure that promises that have been made were continued to be fulfilled in partnership with them, even though the city wasn't necessarily leading on that project.

And so really it's going be really important for this part of our community, Larchmont specifically, because we lack a lot of park access, and this is going be a great safe space for families and elderly and others to be able to utilize this space outside of school hours for playing or for walking. It's a great place, and I'm really looking forward to the ribbon cutting. Starts at ten a. M. Tomorrow at large point elementary. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilmember Scott.

Thank you, Mayor. Since we are taking a moment to make some comments, I figured a couple of people mentioned the resolution I brought forward about the high investment corridors. And I know we used Hilltop as, I used Hilltop as an example because for various BERNANKE: reasons.

But I want to say this is not something specific to the Hilltop. It is a resource that will be available to various high investment corridors throughout the whole city. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Any final counsel comments or questions? Okay. Well, seeing none, is there a motion to adjourn?

Move to adjourn. Adjourn. Second.

Second. Movement second. All those in favor say aye. CHAIR Opposed to say nay. We are adjourned. Good night.